LAUSR

W have reached a 30-year high in the rate of suicide in the United States, with a notable increase in the suicide rate among women.1 Suicide prevention among women has become especially important within the US Departments of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs (VA), as higher rates of suicide among women veterans has been observed compared with women nonveterans.2 Further, in this issue, Hoffmire and colleagues report that women veterans are 35% more likely to report a nonfatal suicide attempt during their lifetime than nonveteran women.3 Such trends have spawned a growing focus on the need to understand suicide risk and prevention among women—toward tailoring prevention approaches to match women’s experiences and finding new ways to reduce their risk. However, little research currently exists in this area. The VA Health Services Research and Development Service (HSR&D), with the VA Women’s Health Research Network (WHRN), sponsored this special supplement with the hope of accelerating the knowledge base on women and suicide as well as increasing national awareness of suicide among women, which may further increase the resources available to tackle this growing concern. The articles in this supplement highlight the value of a wide range of data sources, from the macro-level surveillance data available through the DoD, VA, and the US National Violent Death Reporting System to the depth of qualitative data of individual experiences with suicide attempts. They also illustrate the complexities of studying gender and suicide, while generating new understanding of important areas for suicide prevention among women.